Acting Out (18 page)

Amber closed her notebook and bit her lip. “Well, I admit it's not going to be easy to pull this together. But you know that day I said I would help you? I already had an idea then. That's what I've been working on during rest hour.”

“Great! Amber, thank you so much! So what's your idea?”

“Well, like I said the last time, I think you should do a song. A funny song. I've been working on the lyrics, but I still need help on some parts. But here's the problem. I can't work on this now. I have to go to the stables and watch a friend jump her horse this afternoon. So can I meet you later?” She was already pulling on her riding boots.

“Absolutely,” I told her. What a relief that she was even going to try to help me.

“But I need you to do a few things while I'm at the stables. Can you go to Crafts Cabin and get a bunch of brown yarn? As much as they can spare.”

“Um, okay,” I agreed. “What's it for?”

Amber smiled shyly at me. “I'll tell you later. And then, do you know Jamie Young, the riflery counselor? She's in Cabin Three.”

“Oh, yeah. I know her. She's my friend Natasha's counselor.”

“Okay, go find Jamie and ask her if you can borrow her Hawaiian shirt. It has parrots on it.”

“Yarn and a Hawaiian shirt. Gotcha.” These were weird requests, but if Amber had told me to find the horn of a unicorn, I would've done it.

“I'll meet you back in the cabin around four o'clock. We have a ton of work to do, but I think it's a pretty good idea.”

“Oh, Amber! Thank you, thank you, thank you!” I left the cabin to go round up the stuff she wanted. I couldn't wait to find out what she had planned for me. Maybe I could knit while I danced the hula. Anything, as long as I had an act to do.

“Are you nervous?” asked Amber.

“A little,” I admitted. It was the whole waiting part that was hard. I figured once I was onstage, JD would take over and I could be my crazy self. Or my crazy made-up self.

“You look great,” Amber said.

“Thanks! It feels like Halloween.” I shook my brown yarn locks. I just hoped my wig would stay on. Amber held the Slinky dog for me.

All the people doing acts were crowded outside the kitchen doors at the back of the dining hall, waiting our turn. Inside, the whole camp was watching as one act after another went onstage. Through the screen windows we could hear a Junior girl playing “Yesterday” on the piano. She was pretty good, considering she was only eight.

Lauren, Mei, Courtney, and Claudia were all waiting out here too, but some Senior girls stood between our two groups. All day I'd barely seen or spoken to my friends. Was this how camp was going to end—with those guys not even talking to me, and with Amber as my new bff? Everything was so mixed up and weird.

“I guess Lauren's group is going through with it,” I whispered to Amber.

“I guess so,” she whispered back. “Maybe they cleaned it up, like they said they would. Maybe it won't be too outrageous.” That was Amber—always looking on the bright side. The group was dressed in matching white shorts and pink tanks. I'd seen them going around to different cabins today, borrowing the clothes they needed.

Then I looked over and saw Mei wiggling through the crowd toward me.

“I'm not going through with it,” she announced when she reached me.

“What?” I asked. “How come?”

Mei shrugged and bit her lip. “I just . . . I'm not sure what's going to happen. Michelle and Alex will definitely be mad. What if we really do get into trouble?”

I glanced over at Lauren and the others. The dance group was now down to three. I could see Lauren's furious expression. Courtney was talking to her and gesturing.

“I'm gonna go talk to them,” I said, pushing through the crowd to get to them.

“Oh, hi, Benedict. How's it going?” Lauren glared at me as I walked up.

“Hi, guys,” I said, ignoring her remark. “If you don't want to do your dance, it's okay. Just let me go on and make a fool of myself, all right? I'll be Cabin Two's act.”

“This is all your fault!” snapped Lauren. “The only reason I suggested doing this dance in the first place was to help you out. And then you go and desert us! Now nobody wants to do it!”

“Then let me do it!” I shot back. “You guys can pull out!”

“I don't want to pull out! I want to do the dance! We spent hours and hours working on it.” Lauren threw up her hands while Courtney and Claudia stood silently by, looking helpless.

Mei and Amber came over to us. “Lauren, just let it go. JD has something funny planned,” Mei told her.

“What a waste! All that time we spent! And for what? Nothing! You're all a bunch of wimps.” Lauren pointed at me. “You started this. If you hadn't backed out, none of the others would have.”

She was right. It was my fault. If I could've thought of an act on my own, none of this would've happened. And now everything was falling apart.

“Look, let's . . .” Everyone stared at me, waiting for me to say something. There they all were, in their little matching outfits. And they were all good dancers. If only Alex hadn't seen us rehearsing that day. If only Michelle hadn't hypnotized me into being a good girl this morning. Would it be so bad if they did the dance? What was the worst that could happen?

“What if . . . why don't we do them together? I'll do my act onstage, and you guys can all be my backup dancers,” I blurted out. It was the only thing I could think of.

“What? We're supposed to go on in about five minutes!” yelled Lauren. “We don't even know what you're doing for an act!” She looked me up and down. I had on Jamie Young's Hawaiian shirt with parrots all over it and three packages of brown yarn hanging on my head. It was supposed to look like long wavy hair.

“I'm singing ‘Camp Days,' ” I told them. “Amber made up funny lyrics for me. I'm doing a Weird Al imitation,” I added, in case they didn't recognize me.

“ ‘Camp Days'?” asked Mei. “ ‘Camp Days! Camp Days! We frolic and skip in the dew, the dew'? You're singing that song?” Her jaw dropped.

“Yeah! It'll be funny! You guys back me up. Come on! Let's do it!”

“No way!” said Lauren. “No way are we going to go out there and dance to some stupid camp song without any real music! It'll mess up the whole routine!”

“Middler Cabin Two? Where's the act for Middler Cabin Two?” shouted Lydia Duncan, one of the CATs. They were organizing everything, telling people when to go on.

“Over here!” called Amber, waving the Slinky dog over her head.

“You guys are next. I need you over here by the door. As soon as the juggler finishes, you're on.”

“No, we can't be next!” Courtney yelled across the crowd to her. “We're not ready!”

“Yes, we are!” I yelled back. Then I turned to the rest of them. “You guys, please! This will work! I'm going out there and I'll sing ‘Camp Days' while all of you dance behind me. Can't you imagine how funny that will be?”

“The dance we're doing is
not
funny,” Lauren insisted. She had her arms crossed, and she looked like she wasn't going to budge.

I grabbed her shoulders. “Lauren, listen. If you do the dance the way you practiced it, everyone's gonna freak. But if you do it while I'm singing some ridiculous song, it'll give the whole camp a chance to see your amazing choreography and the group's awesome moves. And no one will get upset about it. Trust me.”

Courtney nudged her with her elbow. “It might be a good idea. We all know the dance by heart. We could do it without any music at all.”

“I can't believe this is happening,” said Lauren, shaking her head.

“Cabin Two! Front and center!” Lydia called.

“Hey, if we're all going on, what about Shelby?” asked Claudia.

Shelby! Oh my God, we'd completely forgotten about her. Since she'd backed out of doing the dance, she was sitting in the audience with all the other campers.

I turned to Amber. “Can you go find her? Tell her what we're doing and get her to dance with us.”

“She's not dressed for it,” Lauren reminded me.

“We'll figure something out,” I said. I pushed my way through all the other girls standing around till I reached the kitchen door where Lydia was waiting.

“Okay, as soon as the applause stops, I'll announce you, and then you guys go on. Does your act have a name?” Lydia asked me.

“Uh, the Dancing Fools,” I told her, saying the first thing that came to mind. The others had joined me, and we were all outside the door.

“We can't go on now,” said Claudia. “What about Shelby?”

“I'm not going on at all,” Lauren insisted. “I'm not a dancing fool.”

“We need a few more minutes,” I told Lydia. “Can you send someone else on next?” I begged her.

“We'll go,” said a couple of Senior girls standing behind us, dressed in togas.

“Fine. As long as the show goes on,” Lydia said, disappearing with them through the screen door.

Just then Michelle appeared with a can of Coke. “Amber told me you might need this,” she said. “Drink up.”

“Oh, yes! You're a lifesaver.” I grabbed the can and took three big gulps. Amber had remembered to ask Michelle to buy me a drink from the counselors' vending machine.

“Hey, where's our liquid refreshment?” asked Mei with her hands on her hips.

“Do you need to burp too?” Michelle asked.

“What are you talking about?” cried Mei.

“No, you don't need to burp! Just dance!” I told her before taking two more swigs.

Amber came dashing up with Shelby. “I found her!”

“Shelby, you're all dancing behind me while I sing,” I said in between swallows of Coke. The pressure was starting to rise.

“She's not dressed!” Lauren protested.

Shelby had on a gray Pine Haven sweatshirt and denim shorts. “Stick her in the middle. It'll be fine,” said Mei.

Lydia came out of the kitchen door. “Dancing Fools, are you ready now? Because you're next.” Inside, we could hear the applause for the last act.

“We're ready!” I said, handing Michelle the empty can. I was about to explode.

“Wait! Your dog!” yelled Amber, tossing me the Slinky dog. It had a stuffed head and backside, but its middle looked like a plastic accordion.

I followed Lydia through the kitchen to the swinging door that led to the dining room. Through the door I could hear the sound of a couple hundred people shuffling around in seats and making noise. The rest of the girls crowded up behind me.

Lydia went through the door and announced, “And now, from Middler Cabin Two, please welcome The Dancing Fools.”

Everyone applauded as I rushed out on the stage. It was just a wooden platform at one end of the dining hall. All the tables had been moved out, and the audience was sitting in long rows of chairs.

There was only one problem. I was all alone. I could see Courtney peek through the swinging door, and the others were standing behind her, still arguing. Or at least it looked that way. Were they not going to follow me? Should I go ahead and start singing without them? There was a long pause while I stood there, clutching the Slinky dog and looking at the door. I could hear a couple of snickers.

Then Courtney, Mei, and Claudia came running out. They got more applause, but it was pretty obvious that none of us knew what to do. Mei kept motioning to Lauren and Shelby while we all looked at the door. Again I heard some laughter.

“We really did rehearse this!” I said loudly. I got several laughs, and then the door swung open and Lauren and Shelby ran out. Lauren's face was beet red, but I doubted anyone in the audience could see it. They all lined up the way we'd done in rehearsals. Shelby stood in the middle in her Pine Haven sweatshirt, and with two girls in pink tanks on either side of her, it looked like we'd planned it that way.

I took a deep breath and walked to the edge of the platform. “Tonight we'll be performing a lovely camp tune you're all familiar with. It's called ‘Camp Days.' ” I made loud throat-clearing noises and held up the dog like an accordion. I heard Lauren count off in a whisper, and the girls began to dance as I sang to the tune of “My Bonnie Lies Over the Ocean.”

Pine Haven, I try to forget you.

Your meals give me gas all night long.

I let out the huge burp that had been building up inside me. A roar of laughter exploded across the dining hall.

Your lake makes me freeze all my toes off.

Tadpoles in my suit—that's just wrong!

By now I had to shout over all the noise of people laughing. I pumped the dog's belly like an accordion while my backup dancers strutted behind me.

Camp Days! Camp Days! We frolic and skip in the dew, the dew!